Intro: Entrepreneurship

Immigrants have consistently demonstrated a strong entrepreneurial spirit and propensity to create new businesses. For example, immigrants are more than twice as likely as native-born citizens to start new businesses, and 28 percent of all U.S. companies started in 2011 had immigrant founders – despite immigrants comprising roughly 13 percent of the population. A study from the Partnership found that more than 40 percent of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children, including such iconic brands as Kraft and Procter & Gamble, and leaders of the new economy such as Google and eBay.

The economic impact is immense. Businesses owned by immigrants employ one in ten American workers, and in 2011, they generated $775 billion in revenue. Immigrants have managed to build new companies and create jobs despite the costly obstacles of America’s broken immigration system. Introducing a new entrepreneur-focused visa and passing immigration reform to remove bureaucratic barriers will help ensure that the next U.S. Steel, Yahoo!, DuPont, and Pfizer will be founded in America.

Learn more about immigration and entrepreneurship below.